Recommend me a SS pre.....

Reading up on these a bit more, am wondering if they might be the perfect partner to the Quadratures? Might explore the idea a bit more.
 
Arnoldhasmail said:
I tend to listen at mid to higher levels...do you think the pre does that well or can? What’s the gain?
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Are you asking about the LTA? I absolutely do think it would be great at higher levels.

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I would suggest listening to any SS preamps that your local dealers have and that price is largely relational to the specific company not across brands.

An example is thus: Say you love the sound of ribbon planar speakers - maybe it is priced at $2k and you like it better than ANY boxed speaker at $10k - you can call it, like some reviewers who feel this way, a giant killer. On the hand if you dislike the sound of such planars, as many many MANY people do, then you will the reverse that a very good $2k boxed speaker rips apart a $15k panel.

This goes for amplifiers, sources, etc. if you are a fan of Single Ended Triode operation with High efficiency loudspeakers then chances are you will find a preamp or integrated for under $5k that you will like better than $150k worth of Krell/Levinson/Soulution/Edge/Celestion etc. We all might agree that that the $50k Krell sounds better than the $3,000 Krell however. So if you LOVE the $3k Krell then you will find the $50k Krell to make sense - it is about raising the bar of the platform of design.

If you buy into the "platform sound" then to you the top model of that platform is justifiable but which may seem crazy to me. Some people are also more picky about certain traits than others - so when I listen to music I may focus more on the tone and timbre and like the ambient energy of an active tube preamp while someone else will listen to that same thing and feel that a passive preamp is more neautral with a more open accurate character. I may view it as lacking definition, body and weight that is on the recording and is being gutted.

So you can audition the exact same thing and have a pretty big difference of what is happening or what you want your music to sound like. So when comparing SS to tube I focus less on the money but the design but then within the same design I find more money almost always equals better to much better sound.

For me the M3 preamp is the exact same design as the M10 preamp the latter is a balls to the walls improvement in parts quality and sound quality. You pays more you gets more - BUT if you don't like the way those preamps reproduce sound then you probably won't understand why the M10 is priced into the stratosphere.

So it sounds like the OP is in the technology sampling stage of seeing which of the preamp technologies suits his preference because in general one will come out on top. The only advice I have is to compare apples to apples - in other words compare say three very well regarded passive premps, three well regarded SS preamps, and 3 SET maker preamps, and 3 PP maker preamps, and heck even OTL or class D. Audition in the same general price ranges as it's not really fair to listen to a $50k SS preamp against a $1500 tube preamp for example.

Lastly, it also somewhat depends on the system one is using as well - the level of resolution the rest of the system has in order to delineate what in fact the premps under test are doing - for instance you could bring in a preamp that throws light on the weaknesses of the rest of the system - it gets the blame for being rubbish when in fact it is the rest of the system that is rubbish and the preamp you think sucks is actually the rock star of the entire system waiting to be surrounded by better gear. That's why I much prefer to go out and hear an AWESOME mind blowing goosebump giving system then writing all the names down of the components and putting that set-up together. Too much buy and sell hit and miss blind buy mixing and matching with guessed at system synergy.
 
It is true of what you write Richard, but, every now & very very occasionally then, you come across a component that bridges that divide, to the point of a re-evaluation where you have to add 2 figures to the end numerical to do it justice. I wonder how that happens....
 
Does anyone here know if the there is a pre amp with a inbuild multibit dac? I currently own a integrated amp and a Schiit Mulitbit Gungnir. In the (far) future I might like to move to a pre/pwer combo. But I'd prefer to keep the amount of boxes the same.

So either phono amp or DAC has to be on build, both is also an option. Or even a pre-amp with streamer. That way MY Aries LE could also retire.
 
First demo of a SS pre this week - the Soulution 520. In summary I was very impressed - it matched the Bernings well for speed and natural timbre but brought some punch and dynamics to the party. The inclusion of a decent phono stage is a plus too.

Interestingly, I also heard the 511 power amp in my set-up too and thought it was exceptional - it was the first SS power I've heard that gets close to the Quadratures for speed and natural timbre. The 511 loses something in air and space around the instruments, but has better bass tone and control. The two are voiced quite differently, with the Soulution having an overall darker tonality - not in a bad way and in fact was very appealing, but notable none-the-less.

Hopefully the CH L1 should be with me soon.
 
The CH will give you everything you are looking for that the Soulution can't, but it won't better that the Soulution brings to the table. The Soulution will be one step closer to tubes, but, if it was me, after owning the 520 for quite some time, I'd buy an Aries Cerat Incito SE
 
Not to spoil my own findings, but how do you articulate the differences between the 520 and L1?

No distribution of Aries Cerat in the UK sadly.
 
heihei said:
First demo of a SS pre this week - the Soulution 520. In summary I was very impressed - it matched the Bernings well for speed and natural timbre but brought some punch and dynamics to the party. The inclusion of a decent phono stage is a plus too.

Interestingly, I also heard the 511 power amp in my set-up too and thought it was exceptional - it was the first SS power I've heard that gets close to the Quadratures for speed and natural timbre. The 511 loses something in air and space around the instruments, but has better bass tone and control. The two are voiced quite differently, with the Soulution having an overall darker tonality - not in a bad way and in fact was very appealing, but notable none-the-less.

Hopefully the CH L1 should be with me soon.
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That’s a couple of stunning preamps you are evaluating there...


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heihei said:
Not to spoil my own findings, but how do you articulate the differences between the 520 and L1?

No distribution of Aries Cerat in the UK sadly.
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Very similar, really nitpicking to find the differences. I would place the Soulution sound as a "small" step closer to warmer, both world class.
 
The LTA MZ2 arrived this weekend, and very impressive it is too! No chance to back-to-back to other pre's yet (currently have a silver-wired MFA Passive and CH Precision L1 available), but will do that this week.
 
had to downsize my 2 box modwright pre to raise funds for a new speaker and got a humble bel canto pre 3 with dedicated vbs1 battery supply . i would put this on a par with a silver mark 2 music first classic pre . heaven knows why bel canto stopped making them , they have a habit of using their vol controlled dacs into their amps which sounds digital and horrible in my experience [ i have tried many times ]

so the pre has 200 volume stops which gives precise control , it is ultra quiet and so far sounds pretty good . at its very modest cost it really is rather an audiophile bargain
 
Some of the earlier BelCanto gear like the Pre 3 were stellar. Congratulations.
 
The CH Precision L1 is stunning - instills a great sense of order in the music, establishing a big 3D soundstage, precise placement of instruments, and a very natural voicing. Having spent time with a full CH stack (C1, L1, 2x A1), I'd say it's the pick of the bunch.
In comparison to the Soulution 5-series, I'd pick the L1 - it's overall a "classier" performer.
Whilst the LTA MZ is cracking value, it doesn't get close to the L1 (or Soulution for that matter). Neither does the MFA passive.

Very tempted by the L1, but will likely wait until Munich in case anything jumps out there!
 
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